62 Journal of the Mitchell Society [August 



on jelly fish and hydroids (1860-62), Leidy's Monograph on 

 the amoeboid protozoa or Rhizopods (1870), Alexander Agas- 

 siz's Revision of the sea-urchins (1872), and the three reports 

 by A. Agassiz, Lyman, and Brooks (1882-86), on the sea-ur- 

 chins, ophiuroids, and stomatopod Crustacea, collected by the 

 British ship "Challenger" on her famous voyage of scientifi.c 

 exploration. 



One of Louis Agassiz's strong predilections was for the study 

 of embryology. The influence of his example and teaching in 

 Cambridge and in Charleston, during his winter visits to that 

 city, is apparent when we run through the list of American pub- 

 lications in zoology. Up to the time of Agassiz's arrival, practi- 

 cally no embryological investigations had been carried on in this 

 country. But now we find during the period 1846-73 a very 

 considerable number of investigations of this character going 

 on, emanating from Agassiz himself, his associates, students, 

 and ex-students. Agassiz studied the development of jelly fish, 

 hydroids, and turtles. McCrady made important observations 

 on the development of the jelly fish found in Charleston harbor. 

 Alexander Agassiz, the son of Louis, a great naturalist who has 

 but recently died, studied the development of ctenophores, star- 

 fishes, and annelid worms. Morse investigated the embryology 

 of the brachiopods. Packard made known striking facts in the 

 development of Limulus, the kingcrab or horse-shoe crab. 



As it was with the study of embryology, so it was with the 

 study of fossils. Agassiz's comparisons awakened interest and 

 led to investigations. The most celebrated of these came from 

 Leidy, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and dealt with the fossil vertebrates found imbedded 

 beneath our western plains. These studies of Leidy were the 

 precursors of a long series of discoveries made in later years, 

 especially by Cope, Marsh, and Osborn, which have told us 

 much about the ancient history of our western states. 



When the study of embryology and the simpler animals be- 

 came occupations of intellectual interest in Europe, some of 

 the great naturalists like Johannes Miiller, Professor in Berlin, 

 began to make pilgrimages to the sea shore to study, especially 



